Full Steam Ahead!
by QuirkyKirsty
Summary: Two near-drowning incidents and dimension hopping are definitely not what Kirsten would call a good apology; now she's found herself on the high seas with no clear way of getting back home. It looks like she's not getting anywhere fast without a little adventuring on the side, but at least when it comes to the Straw Hat crew there's only one setting: Full steam ahead!
1. Chapter 1

Title: Full Steam Ahead!

Fandom: One Piece

Genre: Adventure/Friendship

Rating: T

Summary: Two near-drowning incidents and dimension hopping are definitely not what Kirsten would call a good apology. But tell that to the sea goddess who apparently reads too much anime. Now Kirsten's found herself on the high seas with no definite way of getting back home, but it looks like she's not getting anywhere fast without a little adventuring on the side, and when it comes to the Straw Hat Crew there's only one setting- full steam ahead!

Today I'm here to write self-indulgent One Piece SI fanfiction, because WHY NOT? It's fun and sometimes you just need to write yourself an adventure. Plus maybe this will help kick start me on updated my other two fics and work on my writing muscle. Hope you enjoy!

* * *

Chapter I.

* * *

General opinion of the beach is that the ideal, beach going experience is best in the height of summer. This isn't wrong, mind you— blazing sun, warm sands, and cool waves to splash around in— but I believe a pretty dang good time at the beach is also at the very end of winter or early spring in the Pacific Northwest. The water sure isn't warm enough to swim in, and you might need a sweater… but cool sand squishes between your toes, and the waves crashing over your feet doesn't quite have the bite of deep winter freeze. On a misty, drizzly day, with rock outcroppings in the distance and evergreen trees bordering the beach, a bracing breeze rustling through your hair… now that's what I call an ideal beach experience.

Honestly I couldn't have been happier for this camping trip. As a spring break treat, one of my college clubs had banded together and planned it all out in the week before classes started again. Campsite reservations had been a snap since it was off-season, and when the day came we all piled into whatever car was available and sped off to the coast for some good old rest and relaxation. We'd gotten probably the best available location, a spot right at the edge of the national forest… and directly on the beach. Mile hike in? _So_ worth it.

Okay, so the drizzle that inevitably started was off-putting to a few of the others, but I'm distinctly sure that Northwest Profile #60 _perfectly_ described the rest of us.

"Hey! _Kirsten!_ "

Someone was hollering my name from the trees. Me? I was on the beach. With bare feet firmly rooted in cool, wet sand. I just waved from where I was, not exactly feeling up to moving from this position.

"Oh my god, are you cold at _all?"_

"Nope!" I hollered back; at the same moment, a swell of ocean water surged past my calves. Yep, I was wearing shorts for my beach experience. I'd change once I was back up at the tents, but until then? Heck no. My club mate just shook her head. She was one of the members a little less enthusiastic about the location, but still willing to have a good time and cheerful enough to not let the weather get to her.

"Please tell me you aren't planning on swimming. You aren't going to swim, are you?" _That_ made me violently shiver.

"Nooo way, not now. Still way too cold for full-body submersion!" I held my arms up in a giant X for emphasis. The water was fine for wading, but anything more was a straight-up polar bear swim. Hmm… though, if some of the guys wanted to run one in the morning… Woops, I was still being shouted at.

"We're making dinner soon!" came the call, "The fire's getting set up. It's hot dogs tonight, ten minute warning."

"Okay, thanks! Sounds good! I'll be up in a few minutes!" I shouted, and I could see her head bobbing her understanding, before she turned and vanished back up to camp. Most of our campsite was on higher ground, just past the tree line. Squinting, I could see a little of everyone else, mostly brightly colored rain jackets. Beachside, it was just me. Standing out in plain reach of the waves with my shorts, t-shirt, and flannel jacket. Shoving my hands in my pockets I turned back out to the ocean, looking out onto open water. It would be dark soon. Mostly the clouds covered up the sky, so the sun wasn't very visible, but there was a heavy grey twilight settling in. far away over the waves was a sliver of pale yellow, but that was it.

It was an awesome, dramatic backdrop. Just the coast and me. What an awesome camping trip.

Probably I didn't want hotdogs disappearing on me, but on a last whim I pulled my toes free from silt and waded a little deeper through the surf. I hadn't let the water coast much higher than my knees, but a little further out saw stronger swells that could push me over if I wasn't careful, and that brush well up to the edges of my shorts. Bracing against the waves I contented myself with another minute of just… standing in the water, breathing in the air. A good day, I decided with a smile, and hopefully an even better one tomorrow. That decided, I swung around and made to slog back through the water and back to camp, where I'd have to dry the saltwater off my skin, luckily I'd left a towel to warm on my camp chair—

There was a tug at my ankles. Nothing much, hardly noticeable… until I found I couldn't move my foot forward without struggling. Salt water rushed past, pulled back to sea in preparation for the next wave in a torrent of sand.

"What the heck…?" Was I stuck on something? I piece of seaweed? My foot, it wouldn't… _move_ right. But I couldn't…

A giant swell surged from behind, pushing at my knees. I gasped, because this one went well above and soaked the hem of my shorts with cold spray. That wave seemed _way_ too big; I wasn't that far out, why the heck couldn't I get my ankle _move_ —

It's… fuzzy, what happened next. There I was, stuck. The sudden massive wave reached the farthest it could go, and began to recede, just like any other wave would.

Except then came the iron grips around my bare ankles, as the wave rushed past in the roar of the surf… and they _pulled._

Yanking me under without even a chance to scream.

* * *

 _Fastwaytoofast_ flailing _noairit'stoogastgoingwaytofast_ there'snoairIcan'tbreathe _desperatelyreachingoutthere'snothingtoholdonto_ nononosomeonehelp _allthelightisgoneitwon'tletgo_ ITWON'TLETGO—

I snapped awake with a strangled scream. My stomach promptly took the opportunity to revolt, and I immediately keeled over heaving up phantom traces of water still in my system. The phantom memory of _drowning_ flashed in mind; but I couldn't taste salt on my tongue or spit out any liquids to speak of… but I was soaking wet.

What… what the hell had happened? I'd been at the beach, about to head up for dinner, when—

A riptide? No, that couldn't be it, not so close to shore. But how could someone have grabbed me, I sure as hell would have noticed some… some _guy_ diving into the water just to grab at my _ankles—_ where was I? Where the hell was I? What about my friends, were they…o…kay…

Despite hysterical thoughts, and shivers creeping into my body as cold started coming in, it all drained away as I took in where I was.

I wasn't at the beach. I wasn't at the campsite.

I… wasn't anywhere.

All there was… was darkness, and a smooth expanse of midnight-black water, free from even a single ripple. There were… _stars_ reflected in the surface, but up above there was _nothing_ to reflect, only darkness. But there it was, a gentle glow of diamond studded water that stretched as far as I could see. Which wasn't much, given that it was, you know, pitch black.

What was I even _on?_ Some sort of flat… rock platform thing. Just me, on some strange island in a _strange strange place._

There wasn't any wind or any sort of noticeable temperature, but even so I felt a chill run down my spine. I wasn't heaving anymore, so I drew my knees up to my chest and just… sat. Tried to warm myself still wearing my soaking wet clothes. Tried to think, even a little bit, but all I could managed was numb disbelief at what happened. What I was seeing.

 _Everyone at camp… They'll miss me, right? They knew I was out there. They'll notice I'm missing._

 _Splish._

…Jesus Christ, what was that? My head snapped around in response to a soft sound emerging from the distance. To my horror, there were ripples forming in the water, growing larger by the second and coming right… _this… way…_

 _There was something in the water._

"Oh hey, you're awake?"

…I _definitely_ screamed my head off as, erupting from the water like any horror movie worth its salt, came a _giant ass thing._ Heart pounding, I all but threw myself away, scrambling on the ground and trying to gain traction enough to run for it. But there was nowhere to run; the edge of the little island came rushing up and forced me to stop, windmilling back to keep from falling off.

"Woah— wait, stop!"

In a surge of movement the _thing_ circled the island. In the midst of my panic I was eyeing the water wondering whether or not it would be worth to just jump and make a swim for it—never mind the thing had _come_ from the water— when the fact that it was, well, speaking finally registered. That, and it'd lapped me and effectively was blocking the way. Muscles tense and senses screaming I was ready to bolt at a moment's notice, but finally I took the moment to actually look at… the… thing…

It was… a woman? A _giant_ woman. A giant woman's _torso_ rising up from the water, with rivulets still streaming down her form. She… didn't have any clothes on. Mercifully I was spared from getting an eyeful thanks to long, dark tresses hair plastered to her front, but with only a faintly glowing light source I couldn't tell if it was actually hair or… something like seaweed. On closer look there was a soft shimmer to her skin, and to my shock I realized she was covered in very fine scales.

So there I was, ogling a giant naked woman in the near-dark, when she braced two slender arms against the island and leaned down to face me—in dawning terror I realized I was only one head tall in comparison— and smiled, with very white, very pointy teeth. Then, she spoke.

"Have you stopped freaking out, or do you need another minute?"

I stared dumbly at her. She blinked slowly with large, luminous eyes.

"Right! Another minute. I'll wait," she said cheerfully, and did just that, settling down with her head resting on her massive arms. I think I was in some kind of shock; I couldn't really feel my legs. Silence stretched, and the giant woman fidgeted. The surface of the water moved, and I caught a glimpse of something long and sinuous hovering just below the surface. A… tail. Not like a fishtail, but something longer, more serpentine. That was when my knees gave and I sank neatly to the ground. The giant woman lifted her head.

"That's long enough, I'd say!" she said, and her voice boomed in the space around us; I winced and reached for my ears, but she wasn't finished speaking.

"Let me just start with this, it is _so_ nice to have a visitor way over here," said the giant woman, and she was… giggling. "I don't get too many folks these days, 'specially not from your neck of the woods. But it was a close thing! You're super lucky, because there was like, a one in a hundred chance of you missing the gate and just kinda… drowning." Stare. She giggled again, a little nervously. "Um, anyway, if you're wondering how you got here, you were totally washed out to sea, somehow. Then you dropped down here and I was like, 'woah, who's that chick'—"

"Wait."

…that word came from _me._ The giant woman paused to look over, wide-eyed as I cleared my throat and actually _spoke_. "You're saying… I swept out to sea?"

The giant seemed delighted I was talking.

"Yup! You were out in the water and got snatched by a totally gnarly wave," she said quite earnestly, but I only frowned because that didn't seem _right._

"No," I said, trying not to let my voice waver too much, "I was standing in the water… it wasn't that deep. I-I couldn't get my feet to move." It'd all happened so fast, and I focused on the memory as best I could. Something wasn't… "I was grabbed. Something grabbed me, pulled me into the water…!"

The giant woman shifted. Her eyes drifted away, somewhere over my shoulder.

"Mmm… No. Nooo, I'm pretty sure a tide dragged you out," she said. She seemed more subdued. Ripples formed where her body moved in the water. "I totally saw it all happen. I mean, it was really quick, like," she mimed a sharp movement with her hand, "That. I mean, these things happen…"

Ugh. I rubbed at my forehead, trying to remember, but everything was so fuzzy. I guess maybe it was a tide. It made more sense, anyway, that I'd slipped. So maybe she was right. Maybe it was just…

"Anyway!" the giant burst out, loudly, and this time I did have to clap my hands over my ears in pain from the noise. "I'm sure you're wondering what even is going on here, so let me explain! I, before you, am Calypso, the guardian of seas!"

In a rush of movement, _Calypso_ rose from the water and all at once there was some majestic and otherworldly. Scales flashed, and I saw that where her waist ended, something else began, the long serpentine tail I'd see hidden. She was smiling down at me, great and terrible but with my fuzzy head and denial still setting in there was really only one thing that popped into my head.

"…Like from Pirates of the Caribbean?" I said dumbly, and the giant woman— no, Calypso— abruptly sank back down to my level and, um, pouted.

"Really? That's what you think of first?" she complained, "I mean, that's a cool film, but _seriously?"_

"Wait, you've seen it?" I asked before thinking. Calypso shrugged.

"Stuff washes up here all the time. I keep up with things." That didn't really sound like an answer to me, but whatever. This whole thing was way too surreal for me; talking sort of helped, though.

"So, uh, guardian of the seas? What's that mean exactly?" she perked up at that.

"Oh! It's neat. Mainly I keep an eye out on the balance of things. Like, harmony between land and sea and stuff. Put good in, get good out and all."

"I… see." She seemed very matter-of-fact about it. "And, um, how exactly did I get here?"

"Right, well, this is sort of my own little ocean in between worlds. A pocket dimension you could say. I store different portals all over the place in case I need to make a trip. Lucky for you, when you washed out you fell right into one I had stashed nearby! And here you are!"

Portal? _Pocket dimension?_ What the _hell?_

"I think I need to lie down," I said weakly, and Calypso did that giggle again that just seemed disturbing on a supposed ocean goddess or whatever.

"It's a lot to take it, I get it," she said sympathetically, reaching down to pat my back in a comforting manner. Except all that accomplished was nearly knocking flat against the ground, but the thought was there. Still… portals, pocket dimension between worlds…

"Hey, so um…" I licked my lips, suddenly dry, "If I ended up here through one of your portals, does that mean… you can send me back through one?"

Calypso's expression fell.

"…Ah. Yeah, I figured you'd ask about that." The goddess gave a huge, gusty sigh, big enough that some of my hair flew back from the sudden breeze. "See, about that… it's complicated."

I felt a chill.

"What do you mean 'it's complicated?'" I said, and did I really sound that shrill? "Can you or can't you send me back?"

"It's just… humans aren't supposed to come through my portals!" Calypso seemed agitated again; she wasn't meeting my gaze, and was sinking lower in the water to peek over the edge of the island. "I call them portals, but they're too small for me. I can't actually leave this place, I just look through windows, and that's really what my portals all. I mean, yeah, _stuff_ comes through them, but see, they're all one way. And once you've come in one way… you can't go back the same way."

No. No, no, this couldn't be happening.

"I need to go back. All my friends are back there, my _family_ is back there." I was standing again. My voice was growing louder at the second. I was shouting down a goddess, I thought numbly, which might not really be the best thing, but at the moment I was scared, I was angry. I wanted to go _home._

"And I get that!" Calypso squeaked, "And I feel really bad about that. But it's not all terrible, I mean. I think I can send you somewhere else cool to make up for it!"

"Somewhere else 'cool?' I just want—" Okay, time to stop. Deep breath. Clenching my fists, I did my best to steady my nerves. Now wasn't the time to give in to rising hysteria. "So, what, you can send me back, just on the other side of the world or something?"

"Yeahhh… I can't send you back to _your_ world," said Calypso. She winced. "Sorry about that."

My mind went blank.

"What."

"It's the whole pocket dimension thing. Um, by coming here you've torn yourself out of your universe, and those tears sort of fix themselves, which means… you've removed yourself from existence? Something like that. So you can't go back. Um, not the same way you got here, anyway."

A beat. Another one.

Ah. _There_ were the tears.

"Oh, oh no don't cry!" Calypso said, alarmed, but it was too late; my vision was blurred. Hot tears were welling up and running down my cheeks. "Look, like I said, to make up for it I can send you somewhere else cool, at least!"

"What do you mean? I just… I just want to go home!" I choked out.

"Well, I said I'm guardian of seas right?" she said. Suddenly she was grinning, and bouncing slightly up and down. "That's not just of _your_ seas. It's of all the seas, all that ever were, all that there are, and all that there ever will be. I exist between every dimension, ever. So I can send you somewhere cool! You know how you mentioned Pirates of the Caribbean?" she looked at me excitedly until I nodded between tears, too miserable to say anything else. "Well, you want to go there?"

….What.

"Excuse me?" Now that was almost enough to shock me out of my tears. Calypso just looked way to ecstatic.

"Like I said, goddess of every ocean _ever._ So if you want I could totally drop you off at Tortuga or someth—"

"Are you _joking_? That's the last place I'd want to be!"

That shut her up.

"Oh. Really? I guess if you don't want to…" the goddess visibly wilted, but whatever. First of all why the hell would I want to wind up in the 18th century in some sketchy, _dangerous_ pirate town? Second of all— she was telling me there was an alternate universe where that actually _existed?_

"Yup! Multiverse theory and all that," Calypso nodded, and I jumped. Apparently I'd said that all out loud. "Anyway, if you don't want to go there… uh… what do the kids read these days… I don't know, do you like manga? What about One Piece?"

… _What._

"Are you telling me you've read One Piece?" I couldn't stop myself from asking, because that was just… waaaay too surreal. "Also, do you have something for pirates, or…?"

"Oooh so you know it!" She seemed awfully excited by that, and came rising back up out of the water.

"Um, yeah, I've read One Piece," I said slowly, still sniffling, "I-I mean, I need to catch up on a bit, but—"

"I love that series so much!" Calypso burst in, positively beaming, and wouldn't that just figure. The goddess of oceans was had a thing for Japanese comics. "Whose your favorite? Personally Hawkeye is a badass. And I cried _so_ much when Ace died, I think I caused a typhoon in the North Blue for days." Great, now my head was spinning from the fact she wanted to discuss faves _and_ implied that she'd had direct influence on, what, the _One Piece_ dimension? What the actual hell. I liked my manga, I wouldn't lie, but this—

"Well… Zoro's always great, and I'd say… Smoker and Law are cool characters too…" Wait, why the hell was I telling her? I was only encouraging her!

"Ooh, you like the tough guys, huh?" Oh geez, she was winking at me.

"Look, forget One Piece!" I snapped, "I don't want to go anywhere but back home—"

"It's settled. I've decided!"

Calypso evidently was listening to me. Instead she was almost vibrating, eyes sparkling at me in a disturbing manner, and I felt a sinking in my stomach.

"What are you—"

"To make up for this whole mess," she said, drowning me out completely, "I, the great and wonderful Calypso, will send you to your own personal dimension!"

"What? _No!"_

"C'mon, it'll be fun, like an adventure! You can give me updates! I'll set you up with the perfect starting point right at the start of the action. I'll even throw in something cool!"

The island under my feet, calm and still until now, was starting to shake. To my shock the lights in the water were growing stronger. White light washed over Calypso and I, melting away shadows and making me squint against the harsh brightness… it was because of the lights that I couldn't see her reaching for me until it was too late.

A massive hand wrapped my middle and yanked me forward.

"Hey, quit screaming," said Calypso, because I _was_ screaming. Screaming my head off because a giant woman had snatched me up and launched herself away from the island… straight into the water. "You might want to hold your breath for this part! It's gonna be a rough ride, but I think I can force you through a portal enough so that you can't get sucked back. But it'll be tight…!"

Naturally, I didn't hold my breath. I didn't have time. No sooner had she oh-so-helpfully shared this with me that she drew a giant breath of her own— and dove.

* * *

Later I would remember struggling against the iron grip at my sides. I would remember swallowing water at an alarming rate, having had my mouth open when we submerged. I'd remember the sensation of horrible, horrible pressure weighing in from all sides, so much that I thought I would burst before I could ever breath again—

And _then_ there was the spinning. Calypso's grip fell away, only to be replaced by the stretching and the feeling being pulled through a space that was way, way too small for me, and then a _pop—_

I erupted into open air with a strangled scream. Sunspots flashed in front of my eyes and blinded me; I'd swallowed so much water that I couldn't get a decent breath in, but to my right was something hard and solid, so I flailed with all my strength until I found a grip and unceremoniously hauled myself up onto a steady surface.

Then I hurled up everything in my stomach, which was mostly seawater.

I never wanted to feel that again. Never _ever._ Panicking, unable to move— God, I'd almost _drowned_ and that scared me more than anything at all. So I lay there shivering, trying not to sob and listening to the gentle lap of waves against the shore, and the cry of gulls in the air.

…Gulls.

Bit by bit I forced myself to calm down. Think. _Pay attention._ Gulls meant open air, not darkness. Gulls meant… _land._ My eyes snapped open and I shot upwards, despite my brand new headache and protesting stomach. I couldn't focus on that right now, though, because…

I was on an island. Not the island in the starry pocket dimension, thank god— but it wasn't the beach I'd started on. It wasn't anywhere I recognized even remotely.

 _Oh, no._

"Hey, you made it! That's great!"

….I would have been very happy to never hear this specific voice again. Slowly, very slowly I craned my head to look back to where I'd came; specifically, just off the rocky outcropping I found myself on. The surrounding water was chopping, but a patch of it had inexplicably smoothed itself over into a mirror-like surface… from which _Calypso_ was staring out from.

She waved at me. I shot her the filthiest, most unhappy look I could manage.

"Where the _hell_ did you send me?" I asked, and I was shaking in a combination of nervous, my near-drowning experience and good old fashioned rage. Calypso seemed oblivious to this.

"Um, let me think… let's just say East Blue and call it good, aye?" she giggled, and that goddamn _giggle…_ no. No, focus on her words.

"East…Blue?" I echoed. Oh, hell no.

"Yeah, that's where I was aiming, and you made it all in one piece! Heheh, get it? Anyway, thought I'd give you one last present before letting you adjust to things. It's a real special something. Between you and me, a heroine's gotta have a cool power for her very own adventure you, you feel me?" She winked. "Just look around. You'll know it when you see it. I've got to go do guardian stuff now, but I'll check in later to see how things go. See ya~"

"No, wait—" too late. A wave crashed over the image of Calypso and wiped it away completely, leaving me… alone.

So I sat there. With Calypso went my rage, but in a way that left me feeling more hollow, physically and mentally drained with all of this… bullshit. The sight of waves was making me sick, so I staggered to my feet and took a good look around.

It was an island, all right. From all around I could see open ocean; the island was a tiny one, about the size of a football field across. Most of it looked like rock, but a little ways in was a grand total of three trees, and to this trees I managed to make my way, collapsing in the shade of one with a _thump._

I was barefoot, wearing shorts with a t-shirt and a flannel jacket. I was soaking wet. I had just met a goddess of oceans and had the weirdest experience in my life, and I was a very, very long way from home. Denial gave me that much, at least.

…it sure was a nice day out here. The sun was beating down overhead without a cloud in the sky; it was a far cry from the early spring back… home. No, it was positively tropical. Resting my head against the trunk, I cast a brief look up at the crowns and saw several clusters of a green fruit I couldn't place. Not coconuts… no, that was breadfruit, wasn't it? I'd had that once. Funny, one of them seemed awfully big compared to the others, and was growing bigger by the sec—

 _Thunk._

"Shit—!"

With a curse I flung myself back, but not before I was beaned in the face by a frickin' breadfruit; one that just _had_ to fall directly on my face, didn't it? Luckily it didn't break the skin, but geez, that probably would bruise later. I turned and leveled a full glare at the thing. It had rolled a few feet away before coming to a stop, sitting innocently in the sun.

…At least, as innocent as a fruit could be when it was covered whorls and whorls of black spiraled lines that most decidedly weren't found your normal, average breadfruit.

 _Anyway, thought I'd give you one last present before letting you adjust to things. It's a real special something. Between you and me, a heroine's gotta have a cool power for her very own adventure you, you feel me?_

"…Oh, _hell_ no."


	2. Chapter 2

Title: Full Steam Ahead!

Fandom: One Piece

Genre: Adventure/Self-Insert

Rating: T

* * *

A/N: Hey hey, I graduated from college! Last two months were killer. Let's get over it with some self-indulgent fanfiction.

* * *

Chapter. II.

* * *

Maybe a bigger One Piece fan with less personal inhibitions would eat that fruit without a second thought.

I considered myself a decent enough One Piece fan, but I did not touch that fruit. Now, there wasn't any _evidence_ that this was an actual _devil fruit—_ hell, how was I supposed to know this was even the world of One Piece? That I was even in the blues and not in some… random part of the ocean? But I was not going to eat that thing out of equal parts doubt, denial, and general stubbornness.

So I sat, beneath the three lone trees and sulked. All day. There was a little bit of fresh water caught in small depressions in the rock, which helped wash the salt off my tongue and keep the thirst down, but I was screwed on food; I couldn't get any other breadfruits to fall despite some vigorous shaking and a few violent kicks, and despite the relative squat nature of the trees themselves they were just high enough out of my reach to climb. Pacing got old. It might have been warm and sunny out, drying out my clothes, but that just left me crusted over with salt and eventually I started to burn from the exposure. Hence, to the meager shade of the trees I went.

Then the sun went down.

Hoo boy, then the sun went down.

And _that_ was an experience all on its own. The temperature dropped, the winds kicked up, and I was miserably caught in high flying ocean spray as waves crashed up against the edges of my island. Leaving me partially soaked, shivering, and unable to do anything more than nod off for an hour at a time before I was forced awake by the weather…. All. Night. Long.

By the time morning came around again, I was a mental and physical wreck, hunched over and twitching at the slightest sounds. Somehow _that one breadfruit_ had managed to stay _exactly_ where it had fallen the previous day, and I could feel it. Sitting there. Taunting me.

…I'd barely been stranded here a day, and already it was getting to me.

Constantly scanning the horizon got me nowhere; not a single ship appeared on the horizon, though I'd been tricked a few times by a low drifting cloud in the distance. I still looked, holding out on the chance that maybe, just maybe I'd be lucky, but at a point I was mostly waiting for one thing.

Calypso. She'd said she'd check in 'later;' now, 'later' could mean anything. As in anywhere from a day to a week to… anyway. I was hoping it would be the former. Really, _really_ hoping. Desperately hoping, as the sun started to sink dangerously low in the sky again and it was looking like I'd spend another lonely night on the rock… when the ocean went still, and the waves died down to nothing. It was an eerie sort of calm, but see, I remembered exactly what had happened yesterday and flat out scrambled to the first section of the island I'd touched, and sure enough… there was a smooth-as-glass portion of water and the image of Calypso coming into focus.

"Hi!" Calypso said brightly, "How'd the first day go… oh, wow, you look kinda horrible."

"Gee, I wonder _why_ ," I snarled. Calypso looked taken aback, while I jabbed a finger inches from the surface of the water. "I've been stuck here all last night. And all day today _!_ I'm tired, I'm sunburned, and I am _starving!"_

The so-called sea goddess visibly wilted. "Oh… did the fruit not give you a useful power?" she said, and she was tapping her fingers together like a dang guilty anime protagonist. "Oh no! Did it give you a terrible power like the ability to tell nothing but really bad jokes?"

"I wouldn't know, because I haven't eaten it!"

"Wait, huh!?" She actually looked shocked at that. "You didn't eat it? I thought you'd be all over it! I know I would. I mean, isn't that any One Piece fan's dream…?"

" _How do I know it's even the real thing?"_

…I was screaming at the goddess of seas. You know what? Maybe I didn't care. I didn't care about her shocked expression, or that angry tears were welling up in my eyes. So screw it, I had the right to scream as much as I want.

"I don't want to be here," I continued, struggling against a cracking voice, "I want to go home. I want to see my friends, I want to see my family. I want to go _home,_ not be stuck in… wherever this place is."

"East Blue…" Calypso piped up.

"Whatever!" I took a moment to wipe at my eyes. "Look, this is all your fault, isn't it? That this has happened in the first place? And there's nothing you can do to send me home? Nothing at all…?"

I trailed off. By now I could add runny nose and bloodshot eyes to the list of 'why I look horrible.' Calypso, though… Calypso looked absolutely crushed. _Good,_ I thought, more than a little viciously, she _should_ feel awful. If a little emotional manipulation was what it took, then by all means I'd play up my very real frustration to the max.

"…I'm sorry…"

…Calypso was so quiet I could barely hear. But to my alarm, I saw that big, fat tears were welling up in her eyes, and oh, geez she was crying.

"I-I-I'm _sorry!"_ she stammered out, and then promptly burst into tears. "Y-you're right, it is my fault… but I thought… I thought I could fix things and send you somewhere fun…. B-but I didn't even think about your feelings… I'm sorryyyyy!"

"Oh, for…" I slapped a hand to my face and groaned. Great. Not quite what I was going for; even in this situation I felt uncomfortable making anyone cry in general, and as far as I could see Calypso was truly miserable, and wailing her lungs out. And bursting my ears.

"Hey… Hey, please stop crying," I said, forcing down my own sniffles, "I mean… you said it was a freak accident, I know. But you see where I'm coming from, right? Like, I really, really just want to go home, is all…!"

Calypso hiccupped; turns out she was a bit of an ugly crier. And… it looked like her mascara was running. Wait, how was a sea goddess wearing mascara? "I k-know," she sniffed, "And I'm sorry… I really am… but I sort of panicked, and when you said you liked One Piece…"

"Right. Right, let's just start there, okay? One thing at a time."

I straightened, stretched out my stiff back, and took a deep breath. One of us had to be calm here. Calypso was looking a little better, but her lip was wobbling a bit. At the very least she was talking to me… right? "So… this really is the East Blue? … _the_ East Blue?"

"Uh-huh. One of the four oceans of the world. The world of One Piece, of course. As written by Eiichiro Oda! Well, sort of. This is just one variation."

…Okay. _Okay._

"Oh, my god…" I moaned, "You realize how crazy that sounds to me, right?"

"Well… yeah. I guess. I mean, your world is kind of boring in comparison," Calypso said. Rather matter-of-factly.

"…thanks. Look, you said you couldn't send me back to my world the way I came."

"Yeah…" she looked sad again.

"And there's really, zero percent, absolutely no way I can get home again?" I hated how small my voice got at the end there. And… I was afraid to ask. I really was. But there might be chance, possibly. Any chance.

Calypso was quiet for a while. Enough that my throat closed up and my eyes stung again. But after a long minute, she stirred.

"What I said was true. You _can't_ go back, not the way you came," she said, and there were the tears again—"But!" she hastily continued, "I mean, it's theoretical, but if you find a portal in the world you're in now… you might be able to ride it directly from here to there. Sort of bypass the in-between where I am. Well. It'd be tough, I'd have to sort of… reroute before you landed properly, but if the inter-reality momentum carried you through…"

"So I could go home again?" I asked, and a little spark of hope flickered back to life.

"Weeeellll you _theoretically_ could. I've never done anything like it before. I mean, are you sure you wouldn't rather hang out in this world…?"

"Hell no!"

"Aw…"

"Look," I said, "There's the cool bits, but there's also the bits, you know, that involve actual murderous pirates? And corrupt Marines? And, god, the tenryuubito?" I shuddered at the thought alone. "My world isn't perfect, but this one sure isn't either."

"I guess you're right," Calypso muttered, "Looks cool to me though. I can't actually go anywhere myself…"

"So let's find a portal! Can you open one right now? Can we try it out?" I interrupted, too excited by the prospect to talk about anything else; Calypso frowned in response, tapping her fingers together again.

"That's… the thing. I can't just… open a portal like that."

"…what."

"See, there's a few different kinds. Like, there's my water mirrors like this," she said, making a wide gesturing motion between us, "But the other kinds I don't actually create myself. They're just… there. Every world has them. I'm supposed to keep watch over them all. Sometimes things just find their way to me on the currents, and sometimes I can send little things through, but… only barely."

….right. Okay, deep breath.  
"Where exactly do I find the closest portal, then?" I deadpanned, and I swear, if she looked could look even more sheepish…

"Um, I don't know." Wow. I could really use an aspirin right now. "I mean, it's really hard to see where they are. These things are sunk in the fabrics of reality; there's no telling where they might pop up. Usually, you can find them where the currents of the world are converging."

That sounded… kind of interesting, actually. "Currents?" I asked, and she nodded.

"Yeah. Part of the goddess of seas thing. Everything follows currents, even reality. Just like with the actual oceans, there is a point where everything meets and flows together. Usually they're places of certain significance, since it's where the barrier between worlds is a bit thin. Or they just show up wherever. It depends, really."

After a solid facepalm, I took another calming breath and laid out the facts in my head.

"…Okay, so basically, I need to find a portal," I said slowly, "And said portal could be absolutely anywhere in the world."

"Yep!"

"If I find the portal, I can go home. However, I'm currently stuck on a rock in the middle of the East Blue."

"Yeah…"

"And how exactly am I supposed to _leave_ this rock to find a portal in the first place?"

….Silence.

"Weeellll… " said Calypso, drawing out her syllables again, "What if you tried eating the devil fruit?"

"No." I didn't even need to pause on that, and she looked a little put out.

"What? Why not? It might be useful."

"Look, I don't know about you but I really like being able to swim. And seeing as how that _thing_ is an established devil fruit… why would I want to trade off that in a world that's mostly made up of ocean? That I'm _surrounded_ by, I might add?"

"But—"

"Besides, what do I do when I make it home and have to explain why I suddenly can sprout needles out of my skin or shapeshift into a wombat or something? Along with the 'can't swim suddenly' thing?" Not even worth it. I crossed my arms and shot a glare over my shoulder at the thing.

"Oh! Actually, that wouldn't be a problem." Huh? Calypso seemed proud, all of a sudden. "Still a little theoretical, but devil fruits are something that only exist in _this_ reality. So if you left and were torn back out, the fruit would just leave and find the nearest available fruit instead, so it can be passed on again."

"Wait, really?" That was… convenient.

"Soooo… you might as well try it out," she said, with a twinkle in her eye that I didn't really care for. "I messed with causality a bit to get that to show up here. Don't know what it is exactly, but…"

"The not able to swim thing still stands," I pointed out, but despite myself I gazed back over my shoulder again a little uneasily.

"Yeah, well. I guess you can do what you want. But swimming doesn't help you out here _anyway…_ and I _did_ say every heroine should have their own cool superpower…"

"Right, right, I get it. I'll… think about it, okay?"

That being said I rocked back on my feet and stared thoughtfully out over the horizon. Nothing but endless blue and white clouds as far as the eye could see. Believe it or not, this was the East Blue. And I was in it. I was in _One Piece._ But… I didn't have to be stuck here, after all.

"Do you really think I could make it home?" I asked, very aware of how small my voice sounded, and that was when Calypso's face zoomed in close as she leaned directly into the mirror.

"Yes. You will," she said firmly, "This is all my fault, in the end. I should have been paying attention. I'll help you every step of the way, and you _will_ get back home in the end, you hear me? We can do this together!"  
I had every right to still be pissed at her, but at her determined face… I couldn't help but smile for the first time since the start of this whole mess.

"…I'm still stuck on this island," I said, and Calypso winced.

"Yeahh, I can't help with that. You could try the de—"

" _No."_

"Right! Well, just wait for a ship to show up, I guess. Or swim. I dunno." Welp, there went the warm and fuzzy feelings. "Anyway, I've got to get back, but I promise I'll start looking though my mirrors and stuff for any good portals!"

"Hey, wait—"

"I'll check up again later! Good luck!" and with a cheery wave— never mind she'd been sobbing her eyes out minutes ago—the water clouded up and was just another part of the ocean.

"Great," I muttered, but got on my feet again, wincing as my legs stretched free from my crouching.

So. I was still sort of stuck on this stupid island. In order to leave this world I had to find another portal, but that required actually going places. Who knew how long before anyone came near this stretch of the ocean? And given the world, if they'd even be friendly?

But the feeling was there. That tiny piece of hope that somehow, I'd be able to get home. I'd be able to see my family, friends again. Things weren't entirely hopeless.

I could get through this.

…assuming I found a way off this island.

I trudged up across the rocks and to the trees again, kicking up sand as I went. Shoes would be nice, I thought absently. And a fresh set of clothes in general. I still hadn't gotten any of the other breadfruits to fall; and man, was I starving.

There was the devil fruit on the other hand, still sitting innocently where it had fallen… no. Nope, no, not going there. Even if Calypso said eating it wouldn't be permanent when I went back to my world. Even if, technically, eating it would give me a leg up on this world as a whole…

Oh, man. I was actually considering it now. I flopped back down in the shade, next to the fruit. Zoan, Paramecia, Logia… and of each of those categories, near endless possibilities. I could probably discount any of the in-manga fruits that had shown up; I sure wouldn't be getting the Gum-Gum fruit, that's for sure.

Now that I thought about it… the Straw Hat pirates. They were out there, this very second. Existing. Getting into whatever mess they 'd gotten into in the books. What part of the story was I in, exactly? If I met them would they help me out…? Nah. Probably I shouldn't think of that too much. I definitely wasn't anything special, not enough that would prompt Luffy into inviting me to the crew. _If_ we even met in the first place.

That still left a world of pirates and Marines out there, and it reminded me that the One Piece world was _dangerous_ for the average civilian. To find my portal, I'd have to actively search for it, and given the size of the oceans around here, my best bet would be to travel by ship. As in, join a pirate crew. Or the Marines. If I ate the fruit, It'd give me a leg up above over the competition…

With a frustrated groan I fell back on the sand and stared at the treetops, because I was _considering it._ The option was _right there_ in front of my face, the one-in-a-million chance that people all over the world would probably kill for. I saw back up and swiveled around to the fruit, cautiously leaning forward… and picking it up.

It felt like what you'd expect a breadfruit to feel like. Not particularly heavy or anything. But the sole appearance of the lines was what set it apart from the rest still clustered about up above. More likely than not, this thing was a paramecia-type fruit, which mean… well, it could be anything. It literally could be a fruit that gave me the ability to tell nothing but really bad jokes.

"Zoan would be nice," I mused . More specifically a bird model. Then I could fly right out of here. Too bad there wasn't some sort of… way to tell. Without eating it. Ugh. This sucked; I could potentially be on this island for days. Maybe if I was lucky, a ship _would_ pass by and notice me. But I couldn't conceivably swim out into the open ocean on my own.

Pros of eating fruit: Get a neat power. Get a particularly useful power that could help get me off the island. Have a way to defend myself against ill-meaning strangers

Cons: Lose ability to swim. Get a crap power. Be forced to wait on the island anyway. Actually, maybe having a power either way could be a pro. Ultimately the power of a devil fruit was all up to the imagination of the user, right? Not that I could see the ultimate bad joke as an offensive move.

Was I _seriously_ going to eat this fruit? I mean, this was the ultimate dream of every One Piece fanfiction writer, and all sorts of self-inserts and OC stories that I'd read had their characters busting out with awesome powers right from the get go. But they weren't actually here, in the moment, with uncertainty staring them in the face. And there was the whole swimming thing.

 _But it wouldn't be permanent if I found a way back to my world…_

Blink. Another blink. Eating it _would_ give me an edge. Make me valuable to whatever potential crew I found myself with. Or, if I went solo, gave me something to protect myself with. But at the cost of weakness to water in a world made up of mostly ocean…?

…But I think I'd made up my mind a long time ago. The curiosity was burning a hole in my stomach, and if the hands that held the fruit were trembling ever so slightly… well.

I set the devil fruit back on the ground, and with my fingernails, I started prying at the pebbly green skin that covered it. The stuff was tough. I had to struggle through a few layers before I hit the pale white of the actual fruit underneath. I gouged a chunk out and eyed it; according to lore, only one piece was actually necessary to gain its power. But was putting it in my mouth good enough, or would I have to swallow it? I thought about every time in the books when characters expressed just how disgusting the fruits tasted. Like rotten stuff… urgh. I _smelled_ okay.

 _No going back after this._

I shoved the piece in my mouth.

…and nearly spat it out as the most _disgusting_ flavor exploded over my tongue. My stomach heaved, bile rose in the back of my throat, and I almost hurled right then and there. It was… it was i _ndescribable._ Soft and slimy and pulpy, all the signs of something that had been left out of the fridge, and gone horribly rotten. I almost choked on it; my stomach did _not_ want that thing in there, but I fought—and by god did I fight— all of it back, and swallowed the damn thing.

The taste went all the way down. I broke out in cold sweat, clutching at my stomach, but after a few minutes it faded away.

And the lines on the fruit were gone. Gulping for air, wiping my now-dripping forehead, I sat there and tried to feel out just what exactly had happened to me; if there was some sort of sign, or indication of what the fruit had given me…

…yeah, no I wasn't feeling it.

Hm.

How exactly did one find out what devil fruit power they had, anyway? Evidently this wasn't like Worm, where the capes had instant innate understanding of their powers. Pulling myself to my feet (more than a little shaky) I looked myself over and gave an experimental pinch to my cheeks. Nothing. I tried to imagine wings, feathers sprouting out my arms or shoulders, then paws, hooves, horns, anything... Nope. Maybe not a Zoan, then. Shoot.

I _did_ feel a little warm, but that was probably just the sun. Great, so I really didn't have any way to tell the kind of devil fruit I had eaten, and I didn't know how to trigger it. Just great. What a mess this all was; dumped in the middle of nowhere, marooned on a godforsaken island—without the rum— and stuck here for who knew how long. The next time Calypso rang I'd probably be a dried out corpse.

Stupid stupid _stupid._ Stupid Calypso. Stupid riptides, stupid portals, stupid alternate world, stupid East Blue. Stupid trees. Stupid breadfruit. And most of all, stupid me for eating a stupid _devil fruit!_

There was pressure building in my head, growing by the second out of pure frustration at my circumstances. I heard a whistling but ignored it, as it probably was just the sound of how royally pissed off I was. There were the remains of the devil fruit, right on the ground. It was the perfect thing to vent at, and in a snap-second decision I swung a wild, angry kick at the thing with the intention of punting right into the water.

I missed. By a mile. I was so angry my apparent eye-foot coordination was shot, and my leg was aiming straight for a breadfruit tree. There wasn't time to stop and even in my rage I inwardly winced at the oncoming bruise to my poor shin as it slammed directly into the very solid trunk.

And exploded.

My _leg._ NOT the tree.

I screamed as my body _flew_ backwards in an explosion of white and a violent hissing, propelled backwards by the sudden force and I hit the sand _hard._ I scrambled back as soon as I came to a stop, wildly looking up to find that I'd been pushed a good few feet away from the tree, judging by the furrow I'd left behind.

But my leg was okay. It was whole and all in one piece, untouched by impact with the tree and by the explosion. It didn't even sting.

My mouth was hanging open, I thought. I was a little bit in shock. Who wouldn't be? I'd just seen my _leg blow off._ But it was okay. It was back, and I was okay, and _holy shit._ I could feel my heart hammering doubletime, and a certain set of alarm bells was ringing in my head. With trembling hands I touched my leg, felt the solid skin, muscle and bone shift, but I knew what I'd seen. And there was only one word that explained it.

"Logia," I breathed, because what else could that be? Breaking apart like nothing and reforming again—that was a characteristic of a damn _Logia._ I'd been launched backwards though… had it really been an explosion though? It's not like I had the Boom-Boom fruit seeing as how that was already taken, and that was a Paramecia. Mr. 5's body parts didn't plain explode and reform, either. And the cloud of white I'd seen… Okay, I knew it wasn't something like the Plume-Plume fruit because that was _also_ already spoken for. So what the hell?

My heart hadn't quite calmed down. My body was still reacting in shock to the apparent loss of a limb, but I noticed a certain tightness in my chest that hadn't been there before. It didn't hurt; it felt more like… some kind of building pressure, welling up in some core that was only now noticeable. Was this… something to do with the fruit? More than a little wary I tried to focus on it, lightly touch the spot with my hand.

Only for my entire torso to explode in another gout of white. The hissing sound burst into the air— along with my shrill screams, _again,_ as I slammed back in the ground from backlash. It wouldn't stop this time, either, and before my eyes a ragged column of white rose into the sky.

My arms were still there. I scrabbled at the sand, but dragging myself backwards did absolutely nothing but move the column with it. How could I turn it off? How was I moving without muscles, how was I still breathing if _my lungs weren't even there?_

Abruptly the nearby white was sucked down and my torso was back, reforming in the blink of an eye. I rolled to my feet and stood there panting, eyes darting back and forth as I spread my arms in some attempt to ward back… something.

The sand and rock around me was damp. I could see the darkened patches, already drying under the sun. I thought back to the sound I'd heard, the _hissing._ The shape of the column as it erupted from my body, how quickly it dissipated when isolated. The force that threw me back and kept me there, along with the pressure.

…Steam.

It was steam.

I could turn into steam.

"So," I whispered. Try to reassure myself, in some way. "Steam, so…. The Steam-Steam fruit. Huh."

Laugh, or cry? I felt like both, honestly. And even more honestly, the one thought that came to mind was how much of a Captain Smoker rip-off I was.

Ahh, _there_ was the hysterical laughter bubbling up. I felt lightheaded. I could feel the laughter building up in my lungs, rising to the surface and bursting out in a release of pressure—

Oh my god, that wasn't laughter coming out of my mouth that was—

 _Oh, my god where was the ground?_

It was gone. The ground was gone. No, the ground was a rapidly shrinking surface in a widening pool of blue. And I couldn't see my feet. In blind panic I tried looking at my arms but all I found was a tendril of billowing white _steam._ The same with my legs. My waist. Everything below the neck.

The wind was blowing me away from the island, and I panicked even more which only increased the speed in which the island was rapidly fading into the horizon, leaving me with nothing but a stretch of ocean below.

 _I was intangible,_ I realized, in the face of sheer dumb hysteria, _if I reform I'm going to die._

Fall in the ocean. Game over. But I couldn't figure out how to change back in the first place. How had this happened, how had I managed to become an entire cloud of steam? And how could I still _see_ , not just with my normal field of vision but _all around me?_

At the very least it was thanks to this that I saw the boat. Right there in the water, bobbing along as merrily as could be. If I could make it to that boat, I'd be safe…! Never mind about whatever passenger was currently in it, at the moment I didn't even care as long as I could _make it there._

Somehow this mental thought helped my steam-body change angles enough to rocket downwards. As I went, I could suddenly feel the very edges of my extremities coming back into focus. My arms were reforming right in front of my eyes, reaching out desperately for my lifeline, but at a rapid enough pace that I was frantically aware that I might not make it before I changed all the way back…!

I didn't make it. Just an arms' length away from the boat… I hit the water, and felt my body snap back together at the first wave.

Then I was treated to the terrifying reality of my decision to eat the devil fruit.

Have you ever gone through sleep paralyses? Waking up after a bad dream, fully aware but unable to move your body? That's what it felt like. Even with the surface a scant inch above, every one of my muscles locked up and refused to move. I couldn't close my eyes, I couldn't breathe; precious air streamed out my mouth, but I didn't have the energy to even close it… not to mention I was sinking just as swiftly as an anchor would. As surely as if I were made of lead.

 _So this is what it means for the sea to turn against you._

That was when the hand seized the back of my sodden jacket and _pulled._

Air had never tasted so _sweet._ I was coughing and spluttering as a strong arm hauled me out of the water and onto a solid surface. Some of the liquid streaming down my face was probably tears; but hallelujah my body was _working_ again. Rolling onto my hands and knees, retching as I went, it took a few solid minutes to recover. When my lungs stopped shuddering, and my stomach saw fit to stop heaving, I occurred to me that I was actually, safely aboard the tiny boat I'd seen from the air.

Whoever the owner was had just saved my life. I had to thank them for that much.

I eased back onto my knees, taking in a grateful gulp of wonderful, wonderful oxygen.

"Thank—" I started, turning to meet my savior and thank them profusely, but on seeing just who had pulled me out of the ocean, I found the words dying in my throat.

There was a brief and awkward silence as we stared at each other. I coughed lightly.

"Um… well. Thank you so, so much," I said, very much resisting the urge to throw myself straight back overboard as I locked eyes with Dracule 'Hawkeye' Mihawk, member of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, "If it's at all possible… could I get a ride to the nearest dock available? I'd really appreciate it."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter III.

* * *

Incidentally, Hawkeye Mihawk hadn't actually been close enough to pull me out of the ocean. My crash landing had been just far enough out of reach that he'd had to _actively steer_ his boat over before I sank; this was good for me, of course, but fact is I was still alive purely because I'd piqued his curiosity enough to make him go out of his way to satisfy it. Seeing a person materialize out of a cloud of steam and fall screaming into the water would do that. And if I were honest, it was probably better that I hadn't made it all the way because the impression I got was if I had crashed landed _in_ the boat things would not have gone as well for me.

Wasn't that just the thing, huh? I'd had my devil fruit power all of, what, not even an hour, and the first person I meet is one that could kill me if he felt like it, logia fruit or not. I mused over this as I shivered, completely drenched through once again, and eyeing the greatest swordsman in the world.

By the way, I hadn't actually heard him speak yet. On being hauled out of the water, and being so shocked as to have the audacity to ask for a ride, Mihawk had stared for a full minute before— get this— smirking, and settling back down on his weird, built-in throne in the middle of the boat.

I think that meant yes. Maybe. Hopefully.

Now he was just sitting with arms crossed, eyes closed, seemingly ignoring me; I knew better, of course. Not that I was planning on trying anything. Anyhow, right now things were a little awkward. He was there on his… throne-thing, while I still huddled at the front of the boat. Below him. Dripping water over the floor. Er, deck. What was the front of a boat called? The… the hull. No, the bow. Geez. Clearly I'd need to brush up my terminology if I didn't want to sound like the total boat noob that I was.

Had Calypso set this up? Had she known that I was in waters currently being patrolled by a warlord of the sea? She hadn't even known what the devil fruit would be, so had she just assumed I wouldn't run into him? That the info didn't matter seeing as I was marooned on a rock in the middle of the ocean? How far had I gone in steam-form anyway?

…Mihawk was still ignoring me. And the coffin-like boat was still moving steadily forward, which… didn't make sense, actually. The sole sail was up, and as of now it wasn't terribly windy... I didn't see a steering wheel; presumably there was a rudder, but no stick to manipulate it with, as I subtly peered around back. I mean, there wasn't any sort of cabin either. How did he steer this thing beyond wind power? How were we _moving?_ At a decent clip, too. What did he do when the waves weren't flat and peaceful like they were now? Were the torches at the corners always lit? What if it rained? That hat wouldn't hold back _everything—_

"Girl."

I have never snapped to attention as fast as I did in that moment as Hawkeye cracked a terrifying yellow eye open and _spoke._ To _me._

"Yes?" I squeaked in a noticeably higher pitch, and wow was my face going red? What was this, getting called out in class?

"…cease that noise. It's vexing."

I took a second to comprehend that.

"Noise?"

…His head tilted in a near imperceptible manner, but the annoyance read as clear as day, which was, ah, terrifying.

"Your ears," he elaborated, "are whistling." I still didn't quite comprehend what he meant by that… until a wisp of white float past my eyes. A wisp of steam, that is. There was even more when I turned my head, and now that he mentioned it, there _was_ a shrill sort of ringing in the air I'd assumed was the wind, that sounded a little bit like a kettle going off on the stove—OH.

I clapped my hands to my ears and the small yet steady current of _steam_ pouring out from under my hair cut abruptly off.

"I can't believe this," I moaned, "I'm a literal walking teakettle." My god, I couldn't think now without my brand spanking new logia powers acting up? Like this!? What, thinking _so hard_ that steam literally gushed from my brain?

Well, the stream had stopped, but now I didn't dare risk taking my hands away in case it started up again. The noise, that is… turns out I couldn't actually do anything about the steam, as both of my arms promptly set off their own columns of billowing white, drifting off into the sky with the slight breeze kicking up over the water.

Oh geez. At least I was still solid. Right now it just looked like I was radiating steam like a wet roof on a hot day and was _this_ what life as a Logia was going to be like? How the hell had Ace managed in the beginning?

"Just how long have you been a devil fruit user, girl?" Hawkeye Mihawk again, eyeing me with what I hope was curiosity still. I worked up the nerve to speak to him, hands still firmly fixed on my ears.

"Well. Maybe… about an hour?" I said, a little tentatively seeing as I wasn't sure of the time. "I was on this rock, and there was this breadfruit…"

"…a breadfruit."

"Yeah, pretty much. I didn't think anyone would be coming, and I wasn't sure how I was getting off, so I… I ate it, but then… I turned into this cloud of steam and got blown away, and that's when I crashed landed in the ocean. And, uh. You know the rest?" I winced and shut up, acutely aware that I basically was rambling to a warlord of the sea. Like he cared about my misfortune… is what I thought, and it was with some alarm that I watched Hawkeye Mihawk, after an extended moment of silence, break into a series of chuckles.

Yep, he was laughing. Probably at my ridiculous situation. But, _laughing,_ was better than, well, not laughing. Or throwing me back overboard. Normally I might laugh too since it was a ridiculous situation, but not when the other person is _Hawkeye freaking Mihawk._ Eventually the chuckles died down and Mihawk no longer looked annoyed, but rather vaguely amused.

"As it were, I am hunting today," he said, eyes flicking towards somewhere on the horizon. "So long as you do not make a nuisance of yourself, you may stay. Should you carry yourself overboard, however," and he fixed me with a raised eyebrow here, "I will not fish you out again."

Okay, that was fair. Right now I think my entire body was faintly steaming and my hands were still over my ears, but I meekly nodded assent and was still conspicuously aware of my still-drenched clothing.

"Th-thank you very much. I'll stay out of your way, uh… Sir Hawkeye?" People called him that in-comic, right? Well, it wasn't a wrong thing to say as he closed his eyes again, back to dismissive. Hoo boy. I think this conversation took a few years off my life.

After some sounds of waves and a distant seagull or two, I risked cautiously releasing my ears. Luckily, the whistling had stopped. At the very least I'd recognize when it was happening now. Or I should try not thinking so hard...? Well, I suppose I could profusely thank the collective multiverse for not letting me drown an hour in to my existence as a… steam-girl. (Uh, that sounded weird even in my head.) Even if a run in with Hawkeye Mihawk wasn't exactly my idea of first contact.

Speaking of which. He'd said he was hunting. What, exactly? I frowned; Calypso had said I was in the East Blue, so… thinking back to canon, that meant…? East blue: Luffy's start as a pirate. Various bad guys. Formation of the core membership of the Straw Hat Pirates, and Hawkeye Mihawk's initial appearance as Zoro's established rival at the Baratie, following the appearance of….

Don… Krieg…

Oh. Oh geez. Mihawk was hunting _Don Krieg._ If this really were a world 'as told by Eiichiro Oda' with variations (me) then that placed me firmly after the start of the Baratie arc as a whole, and _before_ the battle against the Kreig Pirates. Sanji hadn't been recruited yet. Usopp had just gotten on board. And, more importantly, Zoro hadn't gotten his ass kicked yet. Oh _geez,_ this was not the entrance I wanted to make into the main OP plot, assuming I wanted to… get involved… I hadn't really thought about that yet. Well. That was a problem for near future me. Current me still balked at the thought of meeting the actual Monkey D. Luffy himself; I mean, Mihawk straight off the bat?

Given the style in One Piece—stark black and white with minimal amounts of screen tone— seeing the transition from 2-D to real life was incredibly jarring. Like with, well, Hawkeye Mihawk. On paper he was a rather imposingly designed character, but actually here in the flesh… well, it was weird. Clearly, it was Hawkeye Mihawk, I really couldn't see him as anyone else; except now he was textured. All fleshed out. With a covert look I could see individual strands of his hair blown with the wind, and faint age lines on his face. And the eyes—hey, you don't know how terrifying they are until you see them in _person._ His coat sure wasn't new; it had a fair amount of wear from constant travel I'm sure. Plus, there was the muscle definition.

…Heh. Heheh. Okay. This was a relatively dangerous path to go down. But, really, anyone else in my position probably couldn't help but… _admire…_ the chiseled abs peeking out underneath his crossed arms. I mean, the man wasn't wearing a _shirt._ The world's greatest swordsman was definitely ripped, and not in a scary bodybuilder kind of way. So sue me if I couldn't help but eye them a little appreciatively—

"Is there something you wish to say?" Mihawk spoke up out of the blue in a very, very dry tone of voice. Every nerve in my body froze for approximately three seconds.

"No," I squeaked, because what he could read _minds_ now _?_ Oh come _on_ , I was _steaming_ again!

Thus that line of thought promptly died a painful, embarrassed death, and I kept my eyes to myself for the rest of the trip.

* * *

Hours passed.

Long, excruciating hours. Perhaps not as comparable to my lonely night on Breadfruit Isle, but when the only other person on board is Hawkeye Mihawk, things can be awfully quiet. I think he napped the whole time. And I wasn't about to wake him up and, to quote, make a nuisance of myself. This was surprisingly hard, seeing as how for a small percentage of that time, parts of me weren't solid.

I was struggling with the Steam-Steam fruit. Thankfully, I didn't go full steam cloud again; the threat of falling in the ocean and getting ditched was more than enough a deterrent, but it did nothing to halt the rampant powers completely. Simply put, I couldn't get a handle on the fruit, like, at _all._

What was the trigger? I had no idea. Was there some way to control which parts of my body burst into steam? Heck, beats me. How exactly could I manipulate the steam I gave off/turned into, seeing as it was now technically _me?_ Basic memory of all the Logia users from the manga did _nothing._ Forget figuring out why my clothes could turn into steam, too. Frankly, it was terrifying. More than once I was treated to fingers, toes, bursting into full-on steam mode, which usually wouldn't change back until I sufficiently panicked enough to force the transition… somehow.

Nothing seemed to react to straight up willpower or concentration, and while if I _really_ focused, sometimes I could _maybe_ control the total volume of steam I gave off from each stump; but it also might just be the fact that the steam came off differently. Sometimes it was pressurized, shooting out with a gusto that had me hitting the deck and frantically looking to Mihawk, making sure he wasn't taking offence at the slight rocking of the boat. Other times the steam was mellow, billowing from my limbs in a gentle column. Steam had different properties, I was aware; getting those properties to work with me was currently _hell._ Yeah, my ears still whistled whether I liked it or not… at least cutting it off was a practiced motion now.

I mean, realistically speaking, I wasn't getting a grip on my powers with less than a day's practice; it took Luffy _years_ to master his fruit effectively, even as a Paramecia. But, right now, it sure would be nice to know that I wouldn't blast myself out of the boat at the drop of a hat.

Really, though… most problematic of all, Steam-Steam fruit aside…. I was freaking starving.

I hadn't really eaten for two days. My last meal had been back in my own world; the devil fruit did _not_ count as a meal. I'd bypassed it before, mostly out of sheer nerves and anxiety pushing everything else on the backburner, but now that I was safely(?) away from the island, I could relax… enough for the stomach pangs to break though.

Overall being on this boat wasn't shaping up to be much fun. Small mercy that the hunger seemed to curb my steam to lower levels. I didn't have the guts to ask Mihawk for food, anyway. I watched the horizon instead. The threat of the plot still loomed over my head, and while I adamantly didn't really want to think about it too much, I wondered how long it would take, exactly, to reach the Baratie. I had no gauge of where we were, exactly. Or how fast we were going. How was this boat moving even…? I was still hung up on that.

There were seagulls, though. So there was landfall or the like _somewhere._

Right now the frequency in which I dissolved was low; I took the chance to lean against the railing, staring out at the horizon. The sun was moving in a steady path across the sky; if I'd crash landed in the early morning, it was approaching a later afternoon now. The sky was bright blue, crossed with the occasional puffy clouds. I watched a lone bird circle above with dead eyes. God, but I hoped it wouldn't take days to get there.

Though not the most comfortable pillow, I rested my cheek to the smooth railing of the boat. I hadn't slept, either. Too cold, wet, and wound up for that. So a nap myself wouldn't be out of order. Maybe by sleeping, I'd stay in default human mode. Or go up in steam. I was just so tired, though…

…my eyelids drooped. The world disappeared in a pleasant haze as they did so. Just for an hour or so….

Ocean spray hit me right in the face. I jerked awake, spluttering out saltwater and cussing out the ocean in general. Apparently I couldn't even _sleep_ on this godforsaken stretch of East Blue, how could I have even thought otherwise? Great, just great. Blinking away exhaustion, I slumped against the rail to sulk, feeling insanely jealous of he-who-must-not-be-named snoozing away behind me. Be a gentleman and give me the chair, would you…? Jerk…

With eyes roving the sea, solidly ignoring the warlord, I spaced out… focused on the black dot in the distance… passed it over… Hey _wait a second—!_

I straightened up. There was a black dot in the distance. Small, unassuming, but real. We were headed right for it. It didn't look like land; I squinted, trying to get a clearer look, making out light colors. Were those… sails? A ship? Was it… Don Krieg?

My mouth was dry, but I cleared my throat anyway and looked around.

"Um," I began, feeling trace amounts of steam start up again, "Sir Mihawk… sir. Up ahead…?"

"I see it." Hawkeye Mihawk was wide awake. And his yellow eyes were fixed on the ship in the horizon.

Waves slapped against the boat with new force; the boat had sped up (how? How was it doing that? What, were we hooked up to a Sea King or something…..? Please let that not be it) and inwardly, I panicked. I hadn't even been here for a day. I thought I'd have a little while longer before running smack into plot, but this… this was too fast. Waaay too fast. Had Calypso actually thought all this out, by sending me to the East Blue?

After the sighting, the atmosphere changed. While quiet and struggling with the steam, I'd been bored more than anything. Now I was deathly quiet and hardly daring to breathe as Hawkeye Mihawk went from dismissive company to full alert. It wasn't much a noticeable change; except, my instincts were screaming at me that now, warning me… that I was in the presence of a predator. Not that he gave me a glance. There was a change to his stance, though, a tightening in his figure even as he sat, arms crossed, in his seat. He didn't look away from the ship.

The chase was on, and I watched with trepidation as we glided over the waves and gained on the steadily growing ship in the distance. It _was_ a ship. A massive ship. It looked normal from a distance, but as we gained, I could see that it really wasn't quite right. I could see the billowing white sails were actually in tatters; the decks were a mess of timbers and jagged splits down the sides. That was just the back. I hadn't read the manga in ages, but hazy memory told me the front wasn't much better.

….I risked a side-eye to Mihawk. Approximately how much of it was him? Ultimately the Krieg Pirates were driven away by a storm… but not before he _sank_ most of a fifty-ship armada.

Geez, Don Krieg wasn't exactly a saint but… just, the poor bastards. What did they _do_ to piss him off that much? Sneezed in his general direction, I bet. Wait, no, or because they interrupted his nap. And probably were rude about it too. Suckers of the universe. They didn't even know that he was still bearing down on them by the minute, intent on paying back the insult in full.

….Oh gosh, so what about me? The man who'd destroyed Krieg's full fleet, destroying the very last ship available, and suddenly he shows up with a person with him? Oh geez, oh geez what would they think of me? Because I wasn't associated with him. At all. I would be the worst person to take captive if they felt like it. Hopefully they'd be too preoccupied with the shock of Mihawk showing up to actually pay attention to me.

We'd almost reached them, too. The ship had stopped; as it were, I couldn't see the Baratie from our vantage point, and it _must_ be here seeing as there was no other reason that the Krieg Pirates would stop. I felt my hands curl into fists, wrapping over clammy palms. The air had gotten _heavy,_ charged with some invisible energy the closer and closer we came.

Hawkeye Mihawk was reaching for his sword.

I couldn't begin to describe the mix of emotions running through me right now. On one hand, he was reaching for Yoru itself, which I might add, was indeed _massive._ Sheathed across his back, I hadn't really gotten the chance to get a good look at it; there was only the grip and crosspiece, and the edges of the black blade itself…

I was in a hell of a situation. Not many people, even for One Piece, could claim to know just what I was about to witness up close and personal. The heaviness to the air… was it haki? Was this stifling atmosphere a gathering of haki as he readied for a strike? Or just a testament of skill alone, commanded by the world's greatest swordsman? Between the looming bulk of the Krieg flagship, and a single man, an irrational side of me almost wanted to take my chances with Krieg.

Then we crossed into the shadow of the galleon.

"Down."

A single command. Mihawk hadn't even stood up. I still hit the deck like a ton of bricks, and just so as a breeze tickled the back of my neck. There was no sound, no indication of movement beyond a slight rocking of the boat and creak of wood. Curled up into the smallest ball I could manage, I blinked and lifted my arms away from my head, wondering if he'd actually done anything yet or if he just wanted me out of the way in prepara—

Yoru hung in the air directly above, casting a thin shadow over my body and across the railing.

To my credit, I didn't make a sound. Sure, my moth dropped, pupils dilated and I think I didn't breathe for a second there; I hadn't even heard him _move._ And yet there it was, the black blade itself, poised in his one-handed grip and pointed directly towards the bulk of the galleon in front of us.

How strong did you have to be to hold that position? To even hold that blade? To move so efficiently as to not even make a sound or indication of a swing at all? And he _had_ swung, for even as Mihawk lifted the blade and returned it to its resting position on his back— all in a single fluid motion without a hint of stress— the creaking began. A series of pops and groans, snapping rope and tearing canvas… and yet, not a sound of splintering wood.

The massive galleon fell cleanly apart, separated by edges cut as smoothly as a hot knife through a stick of butter. There was a swell of waves from the sudden displacement; I gripped the rails as we crested a particularly large one, but the water itself held no trace of any slash at all. Hawkeye Mihawk had cut exactly what he wanted to. Nothing more, and nothing less.

It was terrifying. And it was incredible. Equally mixed with fear was simple awe at the display of power and skill. No one from my world was capable of this, or any degree close to this. It was a power reserved for this world, and this world alone.

And to think someone like this had straight-up wandered into the East Blue, holy shit.

Anyway. I guess now would be a good time to pay attention to the terrified screams rising up from various places around the ship. Cruising right up through the center of the wreckage, we had finally reached the Baratie. I'd made it. I was here.

I'd reached the plot.

"You… monster!"

I jumped. There were people in the wreckage of the galleon. After the initial strike, it'd proceeded to split apart further under its own weight, but now I could see people still clinging on the various surfaces they had. No, not people… Pirates. One of which whom was standing, obviously shaking in his boots as the boat glided forward, but too pissed off to care.

"Why are you still following us? We haven't done anything to you!" he shrieked; Funnily, Mihawk seemed to give the question some serious thought. Then—

"For fun."

Welp.

"For _fun?"_ the pirate didn't seem to think much of this answer, as he threw his hands down and— whipped out a pair of guns.

 _Bang._

"Oh, geez…!" I hit the deck again. He was firing on us! Mihawk didn't even break a sweat, though. Instead he rolled his eyes and _drew Yoru._ Another fluid motion; to my eye it seemed as if he'd simply drawn and now held it threateningly to the side, hanging the blade over the water, but with two loud cracks, splinters flew as a deck/wall/whatever found itself imbedded with a pair of bullets. I hadn't even seen them fly by.

…this place wasn't very good for my heart. Well, theoretically… bullets wouldn't hurt me… right? But who'd actually test it out in a situation like this? I sure as hell wasn't going to risk it _now._

"He missed!?" A murmur rose from the collective group of pirates. Disbelieving whispers, uneasy stares. To my horror, I picked up a few of a different nature.

"Hey, wait, who's that with him?"

"Don't remember seeing her before."

"Who's that, his woman?"

Um, first, just… no. Second… shoot, I _had_ been noticed. Which wasn't that hard, considering I was basically front and center. I could already feel uneasy pressure building in my chest in response, and I unconsciously pressed a fist over my heart. Praying that I wouldn't go up in steam. Now really wasn't the best time.

"Don't bother shooting at him. No matter how many times you try, you'll just keep missing."

A voice rose from the whispering. Loud and clear, projecting across the space that separated Mihawk's ship from the rest of the wreckage. It was a young voice; calm, but assured, and that was when I first laid eyes on Roronoa Zoro.

That is, Pirate Hunter Zoro in the flesh. The first real member of the Straw Hat Pirates I could see.

He was standing on a piece of deck with the fortune of lying flat in the water. He was staring at Hawkeye Mihawk.

"You changed the path of the bullets with only a sword," he breathed, and even from this distance I could see how his eyes were shining, the flash of white teeth in a fierce grin. "I've never seen such subtle blade work before."

Mihawk's attention shifted to this new distraction. His expression didn't exactly change.

"Without subtlety," he intoned, "A sword is but an iron bar." That said, Yoru returned to his back, again. How was he managing to maneuver it like that? Even up close I couldn't get a good look.

"Magnificent…" I could recognize the awe in Zoro's face. Only… with it came the dread. My dread. At the direction I knew this was taking. Just as it was with Mihawk, seeing a previously 2D illustration standing in front of me as living, breathing person? There was no way to put it in words. It's one thing to see Pirate Hunter Zoro on page, but another thing entirely when you can see down to the smallest detail of the wrappings of his swords. The way he stood, how his posture was settling… how his hand rested on the hilt of Kuina's blade. The tan to his skin. The bead of sweat slowly rolling down his cheek.

…and he looked so dang young. Only two years younger than me, really, but again. There's a difference between static drawings and a _painfully_ obvious teenager, no matter how much muscle tone he might have.

"I've been looking for you, for a long time." He tugged a black bandanna from around his bicep free. Zoro hadn't drawn a blade yet, but he did tie the bandanna around his forehead, throwing shadow over his eyes. He looked positively vicious then, still sporting that g _rin,_ and I shivered. Nothing compared to Mihawk, of course, but still intimidating as all heck.

"What would you want from me?" Mihawk still was supremely bored, but Zoro wasn't letting it get to him.

"To be the greatest," he replied, and then he _did_ draw his sword. Pointed it straight across the water in clear challenge. "You say you're bored? Then fight _me."_

The wind died. All was deathly quiet. Everyone was waiting for the inevitable throw-down between swordsmen; the greatest swordsman, versus Pirate Hunter Zoro, coming to a head in the East Blue. So naturally, Mihawk had to ruin the moment by addressing _me._

"Girl."

All this flinching was going to make me a nervous wreck. I'd fallen for the tense atmosphere too, and a bout of steam from underneath my hair betrayed my nerves. I heard a couple of gasps from the onlookers.

"Sir?" My voice fell awkwardly short in the silence.

"You may disembark here."

…..Right. Okay. I'd expected this. But… thanks for _nothing,_ as every single pair of eyes promptly fixed on _me._ I eyed the gap between the boat and the nearest chunk of deck to us. It was within easy jumping distance. But now I felt the acute scrutiny of dozens of pirates, sizing me up. It also was where Zoro stood waiting.

Noooo pressure. Thanks, asshole.

Well. Nothing doing. I took a deep breath and forced myself to stand. My legs protested a bit, slightly cramped from the hours of sitting, and I wobbled thanks to that and the movement of the water beneath my feet. I waited a moment, then braced a foot against the railing. Yeah, I could do this. Literally the easiest jump in the history of anything. Just a jump.

A wave hit. The deck rolled beneath me, and I pitched forward.

"Ah, _shit!"_

Careening forward, my arms windmilled around in an attempt to restore balance. I frantically pushed off, put a little too much power into my legs, overcompensated, and went forward in a flying leap. I made the jump, alright, but basically ended up belly flopping onto dry land with a solid _thunk._ There were several hisses and at least one pirate let off a sympathetic _oooooh._

Someone was laughing hysterically. That better not be who I thought it was. I struggled to get my breath back, gritted my teeth, and hauled myself back up. Of _course_ the Steam-Steam fruit wouldn't kick in when I actually could have used it. Just great. Even worse, I'd crashed right at Roronoa Zoro's feet, and if that wasn't a great first impression—at least I didn't fall in the water again, right when my clothes were finally dry. With some humiliation I noticed he didn't even spare me a glance, still focused on Hawkeye as he was.

The world's greatest swordsman was a jerk for putting me in this situation, but seeing as how I'd gotten this far at all, I sucked up my pride, turned smartly on my heels and gave the man my best bow from the waist; an awkward bob, really, but the best I could muster.

"Thank you very much for saving me," I called. I _think,_ it was hard to tell, that he gave me the tiniest of nods. When it came to the warlords of the sea, politeness was probably better safe than sorry. At least I was free of him now. Of course, I hadn't the faintest idea what to do now… well, there was one thing.

"Hey." Roronoa Zoro's eyes flickered over to where I was addressing. "Good luck," I said solemnly. He sure would need it.

And now I was getting the heck out of here because Hawkeye Mihawk was currently standing up and if there was a place I didn't want to be, in all of the Blues, it was here.

* * *

.

.

.

.

.

Thank you for your patience! We're actually hitting on the main One Piece plot now, I'm super excited!


	4. Chapter 4

.Chapter IV.

* * *

Hiking across the splintered, pirate-strewn mess of what used to be galleon after making my grand entrance with the swordsman who'd caused it all in the first place went about as _well as you would expect it to._

Zoro had gone back to flat ignoring me (a swordsman thing apparently), as I turned heel and started jogging away, feeling little puffs of steam rise up from where my bare feet hit open deck. Splinters were a real danger, here…. As were pirates. I made it about five feet towards the Baratie— which, laying in front of me in all its fish-headed glory, was hilariousin real life— when a hook nosed, greasy haired, water logged specimen of a Krieg pirate blocked my path, wielding a cutlass as curved and glinting as the ugly leer spreading across his face.

"Just where d'ya think _yer_ going, girly?" he sneered in a nasal pitch; highly stereotypical. It wouldn't have been out of place in, say, Pirates of the Caribbean. Also incredibly intimidating. I'm sure there were several rational reactions I could have gone with, considering there was a sharp weapon currently brandished at _me;_ but, look, how many times do you realistically think about reacting to an _actual pirate_ in your face? Obviously, there's only one way to reasonably react to the unrealistic: By taking things at face value.

"That way," I said, pointing over his shoulder to the Baratie. He blinked, momentarily caught off guard by my deadpan answer.

"W-Well… ya think I'm about to just let you walk on over there?" said the pirate, more than a little incredulously. I looked at the Baratie, then him, and thought the equation through.

"No," I said. The sickening grin came back.

"That's what I thought," he said, "And if you think yer gettin' off free and clear after sailin' in wit _that_ monster, then ye've got another—!"

I ducked under the outstretched cutlass and ran for it. A highly offended " _Oi!"_ rose up behind me, but I didn't feel the least sorry for taking advantage of his villainous monologue. Being genre-savvy had to have _some_ worth around here. Without bothering to see his next action I focused solidly on my end goal instead: Safety, and the Baratie. Where a row of extremely familiar figures were waiting. That is to say… a certain cook, a certain sniper, and a certain straw-hatted pirate currently, waving at me, one foot up on the railings as if ready to hop over any given moment. Yep. Monkey D. Luffy in the flesh.

The details weren't something sweat over right now though because a shifting deck and outraged shout were a little more important right now. Mr. Greasy Pirate was running after me, absolutely livid.

"You getcher self back here right now, wench!"

"Up yours!" I yelled back, and for a starvation victim he was really booking it oh geez. The deck was splintered in smaller portions, forcing me to slow down in fear of losing my balance and rolling into the ocean; the pirate didn't have those same reservations and was catching up in literal leaps and bounds, gaining even with my surprise head start…

"Hey! Here!" a shout, made with a young and giddy voice. Oh man, that was _Luffy's_ voice. He was bracing himself on the railings still, clutching his bicep with one hand as the opposite arm drew back in an odd, circular motion…? "Gum-gum…"

A fist shot past my cheek. The breeze whistled as it went by, and… kept going. I twisted around, gaping, just in time to see it smash into the pirate's jaw with a meaty _smack._ His eyes rolled up, a few small white objects (teeth!?) propelled out of his mouth. Then he dropped like a ton of bricks. One hit, KO. Meanwhile, I snagged my foot on a piece of debris and hit the deck in the more literal way… _again._ Naturally my steam-body did not help me here. What the hell was logia fruit even good for, anyway? At least the Krieg pirate was out cold, putting me out of any immediate danger (then again there was the ocean about a foot away) and such it was that I didn't see the impossibly stretchy hand coming back for a second run until it was right over my shoulder. And grabbing the back of my jacket.

For a brief second, I thought maybe I'd dissolved again, off into the wind, but, no, I could still see my body there in front of me as I moved rapidly backwards. Except, wait, with this momentum how was I supposed to stop?

Hint: I didn't.

…And the logia fruit finally made itself useful as I sailed over the rails of the Baratie and smashed headlong into the wall. I saw white for a split second, then found myself staring dazedly up at the clear blue sky, pillars of steam rising billowing up into my field of vision. Well then. Chalk one up for logia fruit; able to mitigate blunt force trauma because otherwise I'm pretty sure my spine wouldn't have survived that one. Dangit, Luffy, were you even thinking that jacket grab through? I sat up, grateful but somewhat annoyed (and ready to say as much) but instead I got an eyeful of assorted pirates and cooks all in various stages of shock and one Monkey D. Luffy looking at me as if his straw hat had just been set on fire in front of him. No one was saying anything. I shifted a little, opened my mouth to give a little Hey What Gives— but Luffy beat me to it, and several things happened at once.

"I EXPLODED HER!" He screamed, hands slapping against his face in horror.

"WHAAAAAAAAAT?" The Baratie cooks more or less screamed in different variations, and a very particular chef aka Sanji himself launched a devastating roundhouse with a scream of his own.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HER, SHITTY PIRATE?" The kick was a direct hit; Luffy took the blow and smashed into the deck.

"Uh," I said, as he staggered up with a dazed expression. Everyone flinched at the sound of my voice. Someone else took it a step further.

"Aaaaa! It's a ghost, and it's speaking to us!" Usopp screamed, cowering away and I was getting a little sick of all the screaming around here.

"Dude," I said, sticking my hands on my hips, "I'm not a ghost. It's just a little steam, chill out."

"Girly," said much calmer, and considerably dryer tone of voice somewhere behind me, "You're a bit more than a little steam at the moment."

"What—" I started, turning around to see _Chef Zeff_ in the flesh, peg leg and all. His hat really was several feet tall. As I went momentarily silent from the shock, ol' Red Leg gave me an unamused look and a meaningful nod; I looked down. My feet were gone. As were my legs, and… pretty much everything else, save for the billowing clouds of white where everything should have been. Currently, I was a talking cloud of steam. That explained everyone's reactions.

"Oh, come on!" I groaned, slapping a hand to my face— or at least the equivalent area of. "I don't pay attention for _one_ second and it all goes up in, uh. Steam."

Making smoke puns seemed oddly taboo now. I swiveled back around in some kind of odd circular motion, because I wasn't corporeal to turn on my heels and was now aware of myself enough that spinning as a solid mass felt _uncomfortable._ A crowd of chefs flinched again as the sides of me billowed out, but I ignored them in favor of pirates of more importance.

As Monkey D. Luffy shook his head back in forth in a dazed manner, I found myself speechless again, because, well. This was Luffy. _Luffy._ A main character of the manga I'd been reading since I was a kid, and even if I wasn't as steady a reader years later, I still remembered _Luffy_ when One Piece came up in casual conversation. And now he was here. In front of me. From where he'd been roundhoused into the deck by an overeager Sanji.

"Are… you okay?" I asked, fidgeting in place and feeling awkward. What should I say? How should I act? What would he think of me? Luffy just adjusted his hat and blinked at me.

"So I _didn't_ explode you?" he asked, face scrunched up in confusion. I stared at him.

"Uh, no," I said. His frown went away and turned into a bright, relieved smile.

"Oh, good!" he said cheerfully, "You went _poof_ and I was really worried because I've never exploded anyone before!"

I felt the sudden urge to face palm again, but resisted.

"No, no, I'm just like this," I deadpanned, "Basically I ate a devil fruit this morning and now I'm made of steam, apparently." Murmurs broke out from the background characters, which included… hey, Johnny and Yosaku the bounty hunters. That's right, they're been getting ready to chase after Nami in their ship before Mihawk crashed the party. As well as Usopp, who wasn't quite so pale now that I wasn't a ghost.

"Wait, so… you're a devil fruit user, too?" That was Usopp speaking now, scratching his head as he looked at me.

"Yep."

"Two devil fruit users in a week… I knew things would be different at sea, but this is just—"

"M-Miss steam cloud!" He was interrupted by Sanji, of all people, though maybe that wasn't a surprise. He'd shoved his way over, gone down on one knee and was giving me an uncomfortably beaming expression. I could almost see the metaphorical heart eye that would've been there on paper.

"I'm so relieved to hear your voice," he babbled, "For a moment I'd thought this _brute_ had done you harm—"

"Oh, you mean me?"

"—but it seems you're all right! Rest assured, if he tries anything again—" A glare at Luffy, who remained unperturbed, "—I will keep you safe myself, miss…?" he trailed off, leaving an expectant silence. It took me a moment to parse the sentence through the flirting.

"Oh. Oh! My name," I said, "Right. It's—"

Before I could share my name, my steam body reacted. The clouds shrunk in on themselves, condensing into limbs and I watched as my actual physical figure reformed itself. It only took a matter of seconds. First I was nothing but steam, and then just as quickly I was myself again. Not a single whisp was out of place. "Huh," I muttered, turning my hands around to inspect them, "I need to figure out how to do that more reliably. Anyway," I looked back up to Sanji, Luffy, the others who stared back in surprise, "I'm Kirsten. Kirsten Lane. Nice to meet you, I guess."

A beat. Then—

"Lane… Lady Lane! A beautiful, melodic name for a beautiful, melodic lady!" Sanji exclaimed… Aaaaand now this was weird. First, had he actually just… unironically called me a lady? I mean, this was Sanji, but... I gave myself a dubious once over, noting salt encrusted clothes, bare feet, and the fact I hadn't slept or showered for over 24 hours.

"…You sure look at things through rose colored glasses, huh?" I said dryly, and several persons around us smothered back laughter.

"What? No, clearly you're just a well-traveled woman—" he protested, back on two feet, but Luffy interrupted him by suddenly crowding into my personal space.

"Lane! Lane, that was really cool! Do it again!" said Luffy, eyes sparkling.

"Sorry, what?" I was confused. Do what? And why were they calling me by my last name? Oh, wait, I'd messed up the introduction, hadn't I… Names were different here...

"The smoke thing! You were just," he made strange motions with his hands that maybe represented steam-me, "And then you just poofed back! That was so cool!"

"What— Buddy, unless you're up for throwing me into the wall again, I'd rather stay solid for now."

…Worryingly, Luffy gave me a look that suggested he was thinking about it.

"Don't you dare—" Sanji started, murder in his eye, but everyone flinched when the voice of an annoyed Zoro carried through the air.

"Are you guys _done_ yet?" He was looking over from the decks. Across from him, Mihawk stood still, arms crossed. He seemed bored. Whoops. I'd completely forgotten about an entire duel about to start, but they were just standing there? Zoro seemed ready to go— two of his swords were drawn now as he turned back to his opponent. "Hey. She's out of the way now."

Mihawk made no sound, but his arms unfolded. He reached for a certain cross shaped pendant around his neck.

"Wait, were they… waiting for me?" I asked, stunned from the possibility that they'd actually delayed on my account. With the looming duel now at hand, Luffy's mood sobered, enthusiasm about my powers forgotten. He turned to watch the fight, but he nodded at me.

"He wouldn't start 'till you made it over," he said, and nodded in Mihawk's direction. "Watching out for his nakama… he's not a bad guy!"

Chef Zeff made a very loud, ill-concealed snort.

"I, uh, wouldn't say that to his face, maybe," I said, a little half-heartedly seeing as Luffy's attention was fully on the fight now, but still… I definitely didn't register as 'nakama' of any sort on Hawkeye's radar (and there was something strange— 'nakama,' Luffy said, not 'crewmate,' or any other variation thereof) but it seemed that my earlier manners weren't misplaced after all. Or maybe he just didn't want a bystander in the middle of it all. Well, I was grateful either way. I wouldn't want to be in the middle of this fight either, and with some hesitance I stood on the deck of the Baratie, watching as Mihawk brandished a very small knife in Zoro's general direction.

…This was history in the making, after all. Zoro didn't need the distraction, for all the good it would do for him. He was angry—I could tell from here how the knife's implication was affecting him, but by now he had a third sword in his mouth and I couldn't hear what he was saying in response.

Instead, I _did_ see the moment Roronoa Zoro made his first move. His arms rose, blades crossed, and in the blink of an eye he was hurtling forward towards his opponent, who stood utterly impassive even in the direct path of Zoro's lightning quick attack—

 _Clang._

A ring of steel. Zoro stopped cold, all three of his blades halted by the point of a single knife held impossibly in their exact intersection. Quiet gasps filtered in the air all around, but Johnny and Yosaku yelled outright. Luffy's eyes went wide, and I heard him mutter Zoro's name questioningly under his breath. As for me, my hands found the safety rails of the Baratie's deck. The fin hadn't expanded yet; I gripped the bars tightly, knuckles white from the tension.

Paper and ink was one thing, suspension of disbelief and all. But this… this was…

With a growl, Zoro broke free from the stalemate, and broke into a rain of blows. Strike after strike, moving so quickly that each of his swords was only a flicker of silver but Mihawk hardly blinked. He was keeping pace, and if Zoro's swords were a flicker then his arm was a blur from the sheer speed of countering every single attack. Suddenly, a thrust— Zoro went flying back, his own power turned against him in a well-timed disruption. He hit the deck, bystanders both pirates and chefs alike watching in astonishment. Now, I had absolutely zero knowledge on sword play; the most I'd ever learned was with a fencing foil in high school, but _this._ This was skill beyond my comprehension. And even with my less than rudimentary understanding, I knew that Zoro was outclassed. _Badly._

Zoro knew, too, from the wild and desperate look in his eye I saw even from where I stood. His chest heaved from the exertion, while Mihawk hadn't even broken a sweat. Rolling back on his feet, Zoro threw himself forward yet again, but he was losing his composure and it showed.

"What drives you?" Mihawk's voice carried, as over the swords themselves it was dead quiet. "What do you seek, with all this ferocity… _weakling?_ "

Ouch. The insult galvanized Zoro like nothing else— red faced, nostrils flaring, an attack on his pride rather than his person. Not only him, but Johnny and Yosaku reacted as well, planting their feet on the railing.

"How dare you call him that?" One of them shrieked, "I outta teach you a lesson, you bastard…!" They both made as if to jump the rail and charge in, but Luffy put a stop to it. Hands shot out to grab their clothing, dragging them back to the deck.

"Stop! Don't interfere!" he snapped, "Just stay here!"

I was next to him, though. I could see how he shook from the corner of my eye. He wanted to jump in himself, but couldn't. I felt sick— focusing on the fight, seconds were slipping by and the fight's conclusion was drawing closer. The apprehension was getting to me—and when Zoro was knocked back down once again I winced for different reasons. If things went how I remembered, then he wouldn't throw himself forward as quickly. He'd try something different. He'd raise his swords in a parallel motion, just as he was doing right now, and strike in the blink of an eye with a Tora Gari slash _and yet—_

Mihawk's knife buried itself to the hilt in Zoro's chest.

"No…!" Unbidden my hands flew to my mouth, muffling my scream. Luffy went rigid at my side.

Blood fell to the deck in a sickening splatter; Zoro was dead white. Only, he didn't move. Not even with a knife in his body. His legs trembled, but didn't fold, and a faint trace of bewilderment crossed Mihawk's face, the first emotion to do so. At this point, I knew they would be exchanging words, but it was so quiet that I couldn't hear the conversation, leaving it my imagination to remember the exact words. I… couldn't be angry about this. Right now, Zoro was proving the strength of his conviction to the world's greatest swordsman; it didn't matter whether or not the rest of us were in on it.

Mihawk abruptly pulled back. Along with the knife, in a fresh spray of blood. I winced, biting my lip to force back my reaction because the awful sound had carried and now everything I'd ever read about _leaving objects inside the wound_ so you don't _die_ was coming to mind.

"Tell me your name." Mihawk again, loud and commanding in the breathless silence.

"Roronoa Zoro." There wasn't a trace of pain or hesitation in Zoro's reply. Though blood was leaking down his front, staining his white shirt and green sash, his movements were just as fluid as at the start of the fight as he raised his swords again into a fan-like stance. Mihawk inclined his.

"…I will remember it," he said, gravely.

Then he reached for Yoru.

The anticipation of everyone watching, heavy as it already was, grew even heavier. I'd literally seen Mihawk use it, not even an hour ago, but this was different now that I was watching from a distance as he drew the giant weapon from his back.

"As a token of respect," said Mihawk, holding the massive sword effortlessly in one hand, "I will end this duel with this blade of mine. The world's _strongest_ blade."

Was he projecting for the sake of everyone watching? Making sure our attention was even more fixed than it already was? Some of the Krieg pirates were freaking out, scrambling away as I'm sure it triggered some traumatic flashbacks. I couldn't tell if the world's greatest swordsman was showboating, or simply burning this moment into Zoro's memory.

The moment he would lose, that is.

…I knew Zoro was going to live. I knew he was going to. I knew he'd _live._ Except, the moment Mihawk moved— he hadn't taken the full offense, until now— I didn't want to see. I wanted to look away and hide my head for my sake more than Zoro's as Yoru rose in the air, graceful in execution even as it met with opposing blades— and shattered them. In the blink of an eye, utter defeat. Pieces of metal flew in the air. Kuina's sword survived, as I knew it would, but another red line carved itself across Zoro's chest.

He stopped. Turned. Sheathed his last sword in a single movement. By the time Mihawk pivoted around, already mid-strike, he was there to meet him with open arms and a smile in the face of death. There were screams of horror around me, but I was too numb by now to join in; all I could think of was how Mihawk's grin was positively _hungry._

Yoru met flesh.

" _Zoro!"_

Luffy. And Usopp, crying out as Zoro wavered, and… fell. The currents had pulled the wreckage of the flagship away, and now and ocean was between us and the Baratie. Johnny and Yosaku, to their credit, didn't hesitate as they dove directly in the water to save him. Sanji was standing in shock, somehow managing to keep a lit cigarette in his mouth, and everyone else watching in general collectively lost their minds.

Was I freaking out? Yes. Yes I was. In the real world there was no way Zoro should have survived a slice like that, he should have been straight up bisected and yet he'd make it out alive. Maybe. I hoped. _Really hoped._

" _Damn_ you!" A stretchy arm flew across to the shipwreck. Luffy launched himself forward with a war cry, and I became suddenly aware of the fact that several things were going to happen and I had to pull it together because after all that I'd _completely forgotten about the Krieg pirates._ Don Krieg was sitting out there somewhere and I'd straight up blanked on him. There was an entire arc left to go through. Did I really want to stick around for the resulting fight? There was a high chance my steam-steam powers would blow up in my face rather help the Baratie in any kind of way; I'd gotten them this morning. I wasn't ready for that level of fighting out on the open ocean on floating restaurant of all things, but what could I _do?_

The answer came quickly.

Johnny and Yosaku's ship was still anchored at the end of the deck. As Luffy went flying across the gap between us and Mihawk, Usopp was hurriedly starting to shove off, fully prepared to steer the little ship to rescue, and in those few seconds of delay I made a snap decision.

"Wait! _Wait_!" Funny, I had to force myself to shout. Praying against steam-steam shenanigans I ran full tilt across the deck, shoving past Sanji— "Miss Lane!?" he called, startled— straight for the dock, right as the ropes were slipping out of Usopp's hands, " _Take me with you!"_

"Huh!?" His head snapped up. The last of the moorings were removed, and there was already a widening gap between the Baratie and the boat. No time for hesitation— I braced myself and made the jump, flying through the air and just in time to reach the deck with a hard landing. My knees slammed against the worn wood, but I didn't feel the pain. Not with a flabbergasted Usopp to deal with.

"What are you doing?" he demanded, even as he did whatever was involved with releasing the sails. I was already up, talking over him in my desperation.

"Take me with you!" I babbled, pleading with him, praying for him to listen, "I can help, take me with you! I can help, I can help—"

He looked as if he would answer, but that was when the wind hit and the sails snapped open. I staggered as the little ship started to move, and Usopp made his own decision to leave me for now and concentrate more on _getting the ship over there._ So… that wasn't a no. I'd take advantage of the small victories while I could, but I also didn't actually know how to sail so I went straight to the rails again in a white-knuckle grip, searching the waves for surfacing bodies.

 _There._

Bursting from the water came Johnny and Yosaku. They paddled furious against the current with one arm each, as the other was supporting a very much in one piece Zoro. He'd lost his bandanna and was as pale as a corpse, but he gasped as they broke the surface— _alive._

Thank _god._

We sailed up beside them just in time. They pounded against the sides, unable to reach. Usopp almost pushed me aside in his haste—fair, this was his crewmate, not mine— but I was able to chip in and between the two of us we bodily hauled Zoro out of the water. He was heavy; I was torn between the frantic need to get him out of the nasty, bacteria filled ocean as quickly as possible, and afraid of making his wounds worse than they already were but we managed, albeit awkwardly. His legs still stuck over the edges, but _close enough_ honestly, as long as he was lying flat. Someone appeared with a box, a white one with a red cross across the top. How was the Red Cross carrying over to this universe? There was just… so much blood. How could Zoro still be alive, how could he still be bleeding all over the deck like this? I tasted bile on my tongue— no, _no_ this was not the time.

Usopp had some kind of bottle in hand, some kind of hopefully medical-grade alcohol, and was just starting to pour it all over the wound when I heard Mihawk again; his voice still carried over the waves, even as we started to drift away, sails unattended.

"I am Dracule Mihawk!" he called, Yoru sheathed for the last time, his composure back to a blank mask, "and it is too early for you to die. Know the world. Know yourself. And grow strong, Roronoa Zoro!"

The others were too preoccupied to really pay attention, but I leaned back, blood on my hands and under my knees as I looked out and listened. Was Zoro really able to listen, too?

"No matter how much time goes by, not matter how many months you may take, be assured that I will stand at the top of the world in wait for you."

I wasn't crying. Nope. Those weren't tears down my cheeks.

"Forge ahead with the strength of your conviction, and strive to surpass me!"

His final words rang in the air, sharp and clear. Except Zoro wasn't moving. His eyes were still closed.

"Bro?" One of the bounty hunters— shoot, which one was it— nearly sobbed, leaning over his body and dripping tears all over, "Bro, speak to us!" _He's unconscious!_ I wanted to snap, but I was the outsider here and bit it back. It just wasn't looking good. Really, really wasn't.

"Zoro?" Someone else shouting. Luffy. "Usopp, is Zoro okay?"

"No! No he isn't!" I might have laughed from look Usopp made, both frustrated and trying not to be. "But he's still alive! Just unconscious!" It was too far to really see Luffy's face— I hope he felt relived.

With everyone panicking, huddled around and fumbling through the first aid box, somehow I was the first to see Zoro's arm twitch. In his hand was his sword, held in an iron grip even in his current state. I shot a look to his face just in time to see his eyes open—barely. They were unfocused, squinting against the sun, and he opened his mouth to gasp for air. Usopp, Johnny, and Yosaku were too shocked to react, staring at the miracle with surprised faces, but I found myself drawn to his arm again, watching as his fingers fumbled at the edge, scrabbling weakling at the line between tsuba and sheath.

Ah. Right. Hopefully he'd be okay with this, but I didn't want him to waste any more energy than he needed to. I grabbed the sheath with my own hands; when my fingers brushed against his, his attention shifted to me. The look almost went right through me as he struggled to focus, and I shivered. I dind't want him to get the wrong idea; I tried to nod and maybe even smile, but I couldn't even manage that so instead I set my thumb against the guard and pushed. The sword loosened. I pulled away to avoid the razor edge, looking back to see Zoro still staring at me. Some of the tightness in his face relaxed, though, more at ease knowing that I wasn't trying to take his sword away from him.

Wado Ichimonji rose in the air, and I stopped trying to listen—instead I let Zoro's wavering oath wash over me, and found myself gripped with an unshakable sense of terror.

What was I doing here?

What the _hell_ was I doing?

Roronoa Zoro had almost _died_ facing the greatest swordsman in the world ahead of his time, and this would be only his _first_ near death experience. The _first._ How could he say these words, how could he make a vow to never lose again, coughing up blood while he even spoke? This was so different from a book made of paper and ink, this was blood and tears and promises and I was utterly unprepared to face a world that would actively try to kill me if I stayed on the same path as people like Zoro, and Luffy, an entire Straw Hat crew. All I had was, what, the inability to swim and a devil fruit I had no training in? What could I contribute? What could I _do?_

I couldn't hope to match up to their standard. _I couldn't walk this path._

 _I want to go home._

Zoro's speech was finished—he dropped his arm back to the deck, completely out cold. But I only snapped out of my funk when the shipwreck in front of us exploded. Oh yeah, Mihawk was taking his leave. Despite myself I scanned through the chaos hoping to catch one last glimpse of the weird coffin ship, but no such luck— he was gone, hidden from sight by fresh wooden carnage. A part of me was disappointed. Scariest introduction to this world or not, even with my very mixed feelings about him right now, he'd saved my life and gotten me here, and that counted for something. So long, you magnificent bastard.

The boat rocked as we were hit with waves, the water displaced again as Kreig's ship broke apart even more. With no one manning the wheel so to speak, we were starting to drift away. In the distance I saw Luffy as he made a saving leap back to the Baratie.

"Usopp!" he shouted, "Go on ahead!"

Usopp looked about as emotionally bad as I felt, but he pulled himself together, and waved in acknowledgement.

"Alright!" he yelled back, "Leave Nami to us! Me and Zoro will bring her back!" Oh geez, Nami too. What a day to forget the plot. "You focus on getting us a cook!"

Johnny and Yosaku were back at it again with the alcohol. But, as I watched, Johnny—yeah, that was the right one— was pulling out a wide roll of gauze, prepared to start wrapping the worst of the injuries up and for some reason that struck a wrong note in me. Maybe it was me getting caught up in the moment; maybe I was feeling useless. Maybe it was me fighting back against the despair eating away in my stomach, but when I grabbed his wrist it was purely from instinct and Johnny actually looked at me with surprise.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice still raw with emotion. "I need to—"

"No, I know," I said, "You can't— you can't wrap it yet—"

"We need to stop the bleeding!" He snapped as he said it. I recoiled, but tried to hold a least a bit of my courage together. Years of second hand first-aid knowledge flashed through my mind. I tried sorting through it for the information I needed, and fast— I didn't expect them to trust me, but I need them to at least be open to help.

"I _know_ ," I repeated, "But— we can't like this. We—we need to get his shirt off so the fibers don't stick. If, if we don't now we'd have to later and it might open the wound again... I think it's— I think they're too wide to bandage, so we need to pull it together first? We need… to…" Why were the words escaping me? A little helplessly I mimed with my hands, trying to get the idea across. Johnny stared at me with some bewildered frustration, but across from him Yosaku lit up in understanding.

"Stitches!" He exclaimed, "You're right— I forgot—" The first aid box was still around, and he dove for it to rummage inside. Usopp rejoined us, quickly figuring out what was going on. As for me, I looked for the bottle of alcohol, and when I found it I dumped the contents all over my hands to sterilize them.

Sure, Zoro hadn't died from this in the manga. But that was a manga. And this was now. And he'd taken a fall into open ocean with an open wound. Even if he already held a ticket to guaranteed survival, the least I could was make sure we did this _right._

It was gonna be a long boat ride.

* * *

.

.

.

.

.

Haha so how y'all been.

It's been a bit! But I'm hoping to jump back on this for a bit more. I've really been wanting to get to this fight, and I hope it read okay; I didn't want to recycle too much from the manga, but there's only so much to change with Kirsten watching from the sidelines. I went for catching the tension and emotions without necessarily writing the manga word for word. Plus, have you see how the background shifts around? Had chapters up as reference just so people were standing roughly where they were supposed to be. We all know what happens already, anyway, so I'd rather try to get to more conversations with the crew themselves.

(couldn't find my OP volume six so I used online— the original lines might be a little different.)

Yep, she's not staying to fight Kreig! However will things go from here :)

Thank you for all the reviews and fav/follows since the last update, though! (double thanks to kimchi759. That was the kick to get back to this chapter :)) I love and appreciate them, and read every review multiple times. I hope I can meet your expectations- I have plans for Kirsten's growth and how she'll reach the same level as the rest of the crew (since this is OP we're talking about lol)

('can you ladder stitch a human being' was the most interesting thing I googled for this chapter btw)


End file.
